The evils of gaming : a letter to a friend in the army

Conf Pam 12mo #586

No. 60.

m

HE EVILS OF

A LETTER TO A FRIEND IN THE ARMY.

BY REV. J. B. JETER, D.D., 1UCIIM0ND, VA.

Deab Fri arning that gaming is prevalent in

Lriny, 1 have concluded to address yofc a Utter on its

I hardly need to assure yon that Lam actuated in this

aination ' to guard ;.

b fascinating am which may issue in your ruin. F

fully | ill listen to the counsel of

one who loves you, who re olicitude for your welfare,

and whose age and experience qualify him to offer you whole-
some instruction and warning.

That gaming u will readily admit.

like many other sins, not expressly but virtually pro-
hibited in the scriptures, it is utterly at variance with feneir
spirit and tenor, ft springs from the inordinate loveofm
" the root of all evil." This insatiable desire plunges the
gamester " into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts," by which he is in danger of being drowned
" in destruction and pi ' He violates the law of love :

" ..VI I things whi ■•-. would that men should do to you,

do ye even so to them." "Were this divine rule universally
understood, lovrd and obeyed, it, would banish naming, and its
attendant evils, from the world. The life of the gambler
exemplifies tire remark of Solomon, "He that maketh haste
to be rich shall hot be inno< ent." Not eon tent with the slow
and steady gains of industry and economy, the gamester seeks
to grasp the golden prize, reckless of the means of attaining

it. He cannot pray, without mocking his Maker, "Lead me
not into temptation." The petition implies a desire to escape,
and an obligation to resist temptation; but the gamester
courts, knowingly and fearlessly, the most dangerous tempta-
tions. Good men, in all countries, and in all ages, and almost
without, an exception, agree in the condemnation of gaming.
Most civilized nations have enacted stringent laws to suppress
the vice as a nuisance and curse to society. Even gamblers
themselves admit that the practice is wrong. An estimable
man — a reformed sportsman — once said to me, " I would
rather a gambler should warn my son against gaming than
you should : he knows the evils of it from experience, and
you do not."

Gaming is a most seductive vice. The path that leads to
this dangerous precipice is strewed with flowers. " There is
no harm," says the tempter, "in gaming for amusement."
Perhaps, there is none. A game of chance or skill for relax-
ation or diversion seems to be innocent. It violates no express
law of God or man. But the sport creates an agreeable
excitement ; and the fondness for this excitement grows by
indulgence. At first the game is resorted to merely to fill up
an idle hour, or to relax the mind from grave and wearisome
pursuits ; but soon it encroaches on the business of life, and
the seasons of devotion. The pleasurable emotion is increased
by small stakes ; and there is no more evil, it is plausibly
maintained, in betting than in playing for amusement. To
keep up or to augment the excitement, the stakes are gradu-
ally and indefinitely increased. The amount staked becomes
an object of desire, and the utmost skill and exertion are put
forth to win it. Success allures to continued and bolder, and
failure to deeper and more reckless gaming ; and thus by.
winning and by losing the excitement is kept up, and the
hopeful or the despairing adventurer presses forward in his
career. The gamester has now reached a crisis at which se-
cresy becomes necessary to screen him from suspicion and
reproach ; and he will find haunts suited to his purpose — rooms
splendidly furnished, barred and guarded, accessible only to
the initiated, or to the candidates for initiation, where he is
invited to partake of the richest fare, " without money and
without price." In these gambling "hells," as they are ap-

propriately called, he will meet, not merely with the low and
the mean, but with the rich, the refined, the gay and the
great. Cheered by the presence and the example of persons
so numerous and respectable, he pursues his course, and soon
becomes confirmed in the habit of gaming. Now arguments,
warnings and entreaties are addressed to him in vain — the
loss of property and character cannot deter him, nor can the
miseries, tears and pleadings of hi^ wife and children win
him, from the path of ruin on Which lie has entered.

Gaming is a most pernicious vice. I cannot hotter illustrate
its evils than by giving a simple statement of the career and
doom of a gambler whom 1 knew well hat who shall he name-
less in this letter. He was of respectable parentage and
connexions, and ot a»most amiable and generous nature. Ho

?rew up a promising, noble young man. the admiration of his
riends, and the pride of his family. lie, early in life, evinced
an aversion t" steady employment, and became the victim of
artful, selfish and unscrupulous gamesters. His patrimony
was soon spent, and he found it necessary to resort bo gaming.
and its usual arts oi^ deception and swindling, to supply his
wants, lie quickly became a c >nfirmed gamester, demoting
to a large city, he entered regularly into the gambling busi-
ness, ilis associates were gamblers, and sharpers, and their
dupes, of various degrees of guilt. From virtuous and re-
spectable society, such as he had known in his youth, he was.
of course, excluded. Prom the Christian sanctuary, and all
its sacred privileges, he habitually excluded himself. His
noble nature, aided by the upright principles instilled into his
mind by his pious mother, long resisted the corrupting influ-
ences of his business and his associations. He retained a
warm attachment to his kindred, who were happily ignorant
of his degradation, and from his ill-gotten gains made gener-
ous contributions for their support. He was accounted
honorable among gamblers, for they have a code of honor
among themselves. A gamester who does not SAvindle according
to established rules is deemed a disgrace to their fraternity,
and is liable to be expelled from it. But the subject of this
sketch was conscientious, so far as conscientiousness can be
affirmed of one whose business is pursued in violation of the
laws of man and of God. Repeatedly he made efforts to aban-

don his occupation, tear himself away from hi* associates,
and regain his position in reputable society. But poor man !
what could he do ? Without employment, without the means
of support, without kind and faithful friends, and without
encouragement to reform, after a few fitful struggles, lie
would relapse into his inveterate habit. lie had entered into
a society in which the Bible was not respected, the sabbath
was not known, and piety was ridiculed : and nothing much
short of a miracle could have extricated him from the bad and
potent influences that were hurrying him to destruction.
Over the door of the gambler's retreat might be appropriately
inscribed, in letters of lurid llame, " This is theway to hell ;
going down to the chambers of death. ;; But few of the mul-
titudes who enter these haunts of dissipation, crime and infa-
my, ever make their escape to the circle of virtuous society,
or become heirs of heaven ; and the man of our story was hot
one of the favored few. After every failure at reformation,
he sunk to lower depths of vice and degradation. Gambling
is rarely, or never, a solitary vice. Profanity, drunkenness,
debauchery, swindling, and such like evils, spring up spon^a
neously in the gambler's hell, and reach an early and fearful
maturity. The un fortune gamester was not exempt from the
vices so common to his profession. He was, I know, addicted
to drunkenness, and it is probable that he was the victim of
all its kindred sins. The way of transgressors is always hard,
and usually short. The poor -gambler was doomed not to live
out half his days. His drunkenness was followed by delirium
tremens; and in a fit of this horrible disorder, he leaped from
the third story of his wretched abode upon the paved street,
and -was found at early dawn by the watchmen Of the city, a
mangled, unconscious and dying man, 1 attended, his fune-
ral. It was a solemn and instructive scene. But few of his
accomplices in crime, and his. companions in degradation,
were present. They avoided a sight which must have pain-
fully reminded them of their guilt, infamy and approaching
doom. As I attended his body to the grave, two of his
ciates testified tnat their lives had been preserved in a time of
fatal epidemic, and genera! panic, by his kind, assiduous and
skilful nursing. The gambler, drunkard and suicide was laid
in a solitary, unblessed and dishonored grave. I often notice

it in passing with a sad heart. No stone marks the spot
where rest his mortal remains — no flowers blossom on his
tomb — but the place is barren and desolate — a fit emblem of
his life and doom*

In the story of this unfortunate man. you have, ay clear
friend, the history, omitting circumstantial variations, of
every professional gambler. This numerous elns* are all on
the'high road to ruin. They have lost their virtue, their ••lia-
. and their happiness. They are wasting their time.
ituting their talents, corrupting the youth of the country,
deceiving and swindling the unfortunate victims of their art',-,
setting thorns in their death pillows, and preparing their souls
for eternal destruction. It is questionable ■whether they are
nol the most hardened, the most reckless, and the most gojl-
on tin- earth. " The finished --ambler."
said Dr. Xott. " has no heart— he would play at his brother's
funeral — he would gamble upon his mother's coffin." Truly
as I love you, my friend, and earnestly as 1 desire your earthly
welfare. I would' rather see you an inmate of the poor house
than an occupant of the most splendid gambler's hell, and in
the raoel successful course of accumulating wealth by the
and infamous arts of gaming.

Thus far I have portrayed the evils of gaming on pi

sional gamesters —let us now notice tne effects of the vi n

u>es and victims of these sharks in human form. It is
surprising that any man. of sane mind, not initiated into the
swindling arts of the profession, should venture to play with
a practiced gamester. There is no equality in the. contest.
It is simplicity contending with cunning — inexperience oon-
tending with skill. The uninitiated can never win, except as
they are permitted to do so, for the purpose of encouraging
them to bet more largely. Success does not depend on chance,
or. even, ab much on skill as on the arts of deception and
swindling. Some years ago, I was present in a select com-
pany before which a reformed gambler exhibited the various
contrivances and arts by which the ignorant and unsuspecting
are cheated of their money. To the unpracti.ed these means
seemed little less than micacuious. Cards are usually manu-*
factured by gamblers, and by marks that escape the notice of
the novice, they are known as readily by their backs as by

6

their faces. In shuffling, cutting and dealing a pack of cards,
the skillful player can, without the danger of detection, secure
for himself any card, or just such a hand as he chooses. Nor
is it so surprising that astute gamblers, stimulated by the in-
tense desire of gain, and devoting their time and powers to
the art of playing and deceiving, should attain to great skill
in their business. They learn of one another, and quicken
one another's ingenuity ; and they are restrained in their
tricks by no regard to law, justice or humanity. They belong
to a realm from which conscience is banished. Gamblers
generally travel and operate in company, that they may the
more successfully seduce and fleece the unwary. These sharp-
ers play with each other so as to attract attention. One seems
to be in luck, and winning rapidly. He allures into partner-
ship with him some simpleton, who hopes soon to reap a
golden harvest. But the tide of luck quickly changes ; and
the miserable dupe is stripped of all his treasures, and left to
bear his loss and his shame as best he can. The execrable
swindlers when alone divide their ill-gotten gains, and con-
tinue their heartless robberies. By these, and similar arts,
multitudes are every year deprived of their honest gains, or
their patrimonial estates. It is by such victims that gamblers
live, grow rich, and dwell in splendor. I knew a plain, in-
dustrious, honest and worthy man, who, from a thirst for
gaining, went every Saturday evening to squander at the
gaming table, among professional harpies, his hard earnings,
until he had lost twenty thousand dollars. He knew that he
would lose in "every visit to the gaming table, and yet such
was his infatuation, that no argument, no entreaty, and no
motive could induce him to forego the pleasure of the sport.
But in the face of all these facts and considerations, gamblers,
the lowest and the meanest of men, still find victims of their
arts, and derive their profits, not merely from the thoughtless
and the dissipated, but from the intelligent, the wealthy and
the respectable. Year after year, thousands are reduced, by
the nefarious arts of gaming, to povertyland ruin. Their fam-
ilies, in many instances, stripped of the means of comfort and
support, are disheartened, grieved and humbled.

If then, my friend, you would preserve your virtue, your
character, and your happiness — if you would not prostitute

jour powers, prove a curse to the world, and a grief to your
fond parents — if you would not plant thorns in year dying
pillow, bar the gate of heaven against yourself, and force your
passage to destruction, shun the gambler, and the gambler's
hell, as you would the plague. Gamesters are not tit to be
your associates. They are debased in their sentiments, cor-
rupt in their principles, vicious in their practices, and baleful
in their influence. They may, indeed, be polished in their
manners, and warm in their professions of friendship ; but
they seek your money and your ruin. Vuu cannot touch them
without contamination. To be acquainted with them is to be
dishonored. You cannot enter their haunts without peril to
all your best interests. If there were no sin and no reproach
in gambling, it would be the greatest stupidity to risk your
money on games with the must skillful, the most unscrupu-
lous, and the most dishonest of sharpers. You had better
throw your money into the fire ; for in gaming you are simply
giving it to the most selfish and the meanest of human kind
— to harpies, who are seeking to cheat you not onlv out of
vour money, but out of your virtue and of your soul. The
honest man who stakes his property at the table of a profes-
sional gamester is simply a fool, He shuts his eyes that he
may suffer himself to be cheated. He richly deserves to be
fleeced, and put to confusion and shame : and happy will it
be for him, if ho learns from his first lesson his folly and his
danger.'

Beware of gaming even for amusement. It is not nec«
for purposes of relaxation and diversion. Fortunately, there
is no lack of recreations, innocent in their nature, and refining
in their tendency. Conversation, reading, walking, riding,
athletic sports, and numerous simple diversions, may be re-
sorted to in the intervals of toil or study, to refresh and
invigorate the body, or to unbend the mind. But gaming is
an amusement fraught with peril. It nourishes a habit that
may prove the wreck of property, the bane of virtue, the
blight of happiness, the ruin of the soul, and the curse of
eternity. Abstain then from an indulgence that yields little
pleasure and no profit, and is pregnant with such fearful peril.
He that' enters this flowery, downhill, slippery road, knows
not where he will stop. Thousands who begin by playing for

pleasure end by playing for gain. Thousands who play hon-
estly in the beginning, m the end, resort to all the tricks and
frauds of the profession.

I need not repeat, my young friend, how sincerely I desire
your welfare. You are the comfort, the pride and the hope of
your parents. They anxiously, as I know, trained you in the
ways of virtue and piety ; and their earnest prayers have ac-
companied you to the camp. You are nobly engaged in your
country's service. I have confidence that, guided by the
principles taught you in your youth, sustained by the prayers
of your friends, shielded by the knowledge you have of the
dangers that encompass you, and humbly trusting in God, and
animated by the prospect of a bright reward, you will pass
uncorrupted through the temptations of a soldier's life, and
return to your home, to be the support and solace of
your parents, the delight of your friends, and an ornament of
society.

' Your very sincere

WELL WISHER.

Hollinger Corp.
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